MACBOOK PRO & SNOW LEOPARD - OVERHEATING

Terald wrote:
A helpful guy I spoke to in Apple Care wasn't aware of it being an issue and
made a point of flagging it up, for what it's worth.

I suspect that because in a lot of cases people tried resetting the SMC and it worked for them.

It didn't work for me until I noticed that Apple changed the instructions for resetting.

For what it's worth, I've had not one single problem with heat or fans since my somewhat lengthy post earlier in this topic on the 24th of Dec, so that's almost a month now.

Hey all. Just upgraded my 2008, 15" MBP to Snow Leopard. I, too, am noticing the computer running hotter than the previous OS. I haven't installed any new applications yet, by the way. It's pretty much fresh. Also, I've done the SMC reset.

The idle temperature is slightly warmer, idling around 50 Celsius, sometimes 51, 52. Web browsing is okay, for the most part, usually the same temperature or low to mid 50s.

Anything with flash, however, makes it bug out completely. It sends temperatures much higher than before they were before I upgraded, and I'm not sure why this is or how to fix it.

When will a fix come out for this? It just doesn't seem right....somethings not right here.

What version macbook pro are you using, and what are your voltage settings? May consider doing this if apple does not release a fix.

I noticed you, too, have a 2008 MBP. What are your coolbook voltage settings to remedy the problem? Also, can you give us your average temperatures when computing (browsing, flash intensive sites, etc)

J theNinja wrote:
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this seemed to get a lot more prevalent after the firmware update. It had happened to me on occasion before, but since applying the update it seems to return within days, sometimes less. A warm restart still clears it temporarily for me, but nothing else has worked. One thing I have noticed: It seems to hit upon coming out of sleep. Just, one particular wakeup, Speedstep decides it doesn't want to work anymore, and will just stay in full-power mode all the time. And it stays that way until you reboot. To be honest, I am starting to consider going back to Leopard for the first time since I upgraded to SL (12:15 in the morning on August 29th)

I have the exact same symptoms. Speedstep works good after a restart, but as soon as I wake my macbook from sleep, the cpu voltage is fixed at a certain level. Really annoying issue!

My poor MacBook Pro is roasting so bad, I'm downgrading to Leopard 10.5 until Apple cools down Snow Leopard!!

This was driving me crazy all year. My fans were at 6,000 rpm constantly and a low temp was 60ºC. I called a tech asking about a logic board replacement. He said that it sounded like a vent obstruction with the fans. I checked it out and he was right. After cleaning out the vents I immediately have a drop of over 10ºC and fans are silent. For some reason, the fans didn’t rev up before installing Snow Leopard; but I think that they actually should have because there wasn’t proper airflow.

I have a Nov 2006 Mac Book Pro 17" and after installing OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard my MBP temp is signifantly higher. Anything that requires intensive graphics affects the MBP and generates enough heat to cause physical pain if you touch the case near the esc or eject keys and on the bottom to the back of the battery.

Last night I actually took compressed air and shot into the rear vents. This happened before when I first installed OSX 10.5 Leopard but was patched. I am using a desk fan to keep air moving around the unit; and I always keep the MBP inclined on a Targus Laptop Stand.

Apple, please release a hot fix as I have great angst that extended use of 10.6 will damage my most beloved possesion on Earth.

Message was edited by: Caimbeul

Message was edited by: Caimbeul

Before I installed SL, I spent hours scouring the forums for issues. This was one that I came across that gave me pause. Since I am running Logic studio and needed to get every Hz out of my processing, I decided to make the switch. Everything went fairly well, except this devious little problem finally crept up after a while. At first I thought it was software that was creating large cpu usage as has been mentioned by others, but not for me. Activity Monitor shows maximum of 5% usage when this happens. So here is how it starts: I start up my MBP and when it settles in with just Mail and Safari running (I have eliminated almost all of my Startup items, Daemons and Launches), the computer idles at approx. 102 F temp. I can use Mail and Safari (even sites with up to date Flash) for hours and the computer stays within that range. Then for some reason, the computer will ramp to approx. 160 F, and will stay there. If I sleep, then wake, it will go back to 160 F and hold. If I shut down and restart, this fixes the problem for a while. Yes, I've tried all the proposed fixes, SMC, etc...

I am betting that this a SpeedStep problem, and something is keeping the CPU ramped up. I would like to install the unpaid for version of CoolBook just to check the CPU speeds to troubleshoot, but have much fear that this third party program will wreak havoc on my MBP. Anyone with experience with this? Any other SW out there that will keep track of CPU speeds? I went to the Genius bar for the first time and although I got lucky with someone who was very versed in Logic, he did not have the knowledge that the CPU speed was variable with SpeedStep technology, so he could not address this problem. If I take this to an authorized service tech, will they have developer tools that can check the CPU speeds?

I mentioned before that I went back to Leopard. Now I "upgraded" again, because my system was broken. I had the same problems again.

No process that was using a lot of CPU, but the fan was always running loud. There was one thing that was mentioned here before as well: It occurs often to people with an old and broken battery. Mine was broken, too. So I decided to invest some money in a new battery, and... it helped!

Fan still spins up very early, but it also spins down again, so at least the basic webbrowsing can be done now without all the loud noise in the background.

I have an MBP as well with the same problems. I was going crazy trying to figure out if it was the HDD spinning like crazy or the fan. I was so sick of trying to troubleshoot SL, that I just downgraded (actually upgraded because it works) to Leopard and I can barely hear a thing and the MBP is super quiet again.

I must have install/ reinstalled SL about 10 times, all with the same problems of the fans just running. not crazy loud, but enough to make the computer vibrate and whir.

So far with 10.5.8 this machine is solid. Although there are some cool benefits with SL on application launching speeds overall snapiness, its just not worth it for me to keep hoping that another release will address the issue. The last upgrades I did were 10.6.3 both the update and combo and a completely wiped HDD. Whiirrrrr from the fan.

Hi guys,

I do have the same (very annoying!) problem. Just took the plunge to get a Mac Box set and installed 10.6, then in two steps all updates. Since I have the update the 17" MBP CPU (2.33GHz) is essentially permanently running 20 degree celsius hotter than before the upgrade and the fans are permanently spinning at >5000rpm when the machine is essentially idle. I'm looking at the menu stats and I see that the CPU is drawing only(?) 6.2W right now but the CPU temperature is at 64 degree celsius. The GPU is at 3.4W.

Now here's some interesting discovery (got the idea from another forum): I have a second monitor connected via DVI; as soon as I unplug the monitor the GPU power consumption drops to 1.4W and the fans slow all the way down to a silent 2000 rpm after a couple minutes without any other changes. Interestingly none of the temperatures go down by any significant number, not even the GPU.

Anyone can acknowledge the second screen relationsship?

degger wrote:
Anyone can acknowledge the second screen relationsship?

I can't acknowledge it but it would certainly make sense, as with the second monitor connected the GPU must update additional VRAM and, depending on the resolution of that external monitor, essentially do twice the work.

The system's job isn't to keep internal temps as low as possible, but rather to keep temps from rising too high.

Therefore when the load goes down and the fans slow down, keeping temps at the same levels, I would say the system's fan management code is working exactly as it should.

Hi All

I have a 2007 MBP and in the last few months have allowed my kids to use it, I KNOW I KNOW, but they are good, and have very restricted user accounts ! Since I upgraded to SL I too have noticed the bottom getting very hot, and now the kids are complaining its too hot to have on their laps with my wife getting involved. My other son's recently bought MB is as cool as a cucumber !

erm I know this sounds obvious, has anyone take it down to Apple and asked them ?

ya... i took my mbp late 2007 model 15 inch in to the genius bar and told them that my temperatures were getting up to 189F and they said that its still within operating conditions. I explained a lil further that i was barely using any apps...maybe just browser with my email tab open and that this was not normal. they recommended that i get my system rebooted and so i did.

They took it in and an hour later handed it back to me. Everything was fresh again as far as software; and they even said my hardware was tested and eveerything was running in good condition. I turned my laptop on when i got home...and still hot 😟
currently at 128F which is not bad...but its all thanx to smc fancontrol